Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are...That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. - John 17:11b, 21

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Yesterday,
while engaged in some unrelated online research (the doctrine of the Trinity),
I happened upon a Christianity Todayarticle (LINK
- posted on June 21st, 2015), that came as quite a shock to me: the resignation
of Tullian Tchividjian (a grandson of Billy Graham), as senior pastor of the
famous Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida due to an affair with "a friend".

As
most probably know, the former senior pastor (and founder) of the Coral Ridge
Presbyterian Church was D. James Kennedy, a postion he held from 1960 until his retirement on
August 26, 2007 (he passed away a mere ten days later). I started listening to
D. James Kennedy's radio ministry, Truths That Transform, way back in
the mid-80s, and did so faithfully (five days per week) for over ten years.
I also took in his weekly Coral Ridge Hour, and ended up spending a fair amount of money on various products offered through his Coral Ridge
Ministries.

My zeal
for D. James Kennedy's ministries waned after I left the Reformed tradition in the late
90s, but I retained some interest until his death in 2007. After that date, my
knowledge of events concerning the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church were non-existent until
yesterday. I did not know that in March 2009 the membership of the Coral Ridge
Presbyterian Church voted in Tullian Tchividjian as their senior pastor. I was
also unaware that this event subsequently spawned a substantial schism—note the
following:

Internal divisions at
Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church burst into the open this past weekend as six
members were ordered to stay off the premises.

The six have called for
the ouster of the Rev. W. Tullian Tchividjian, saying he is deserting the
heritage of his revered predecessor, the Rev D. James Kennedy. In reply, the
Fort Lauderdale church has accused them of spreading rumors and disrupting
church unity. Among the six is Kennedy's daughter, Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy.

Stresses are common
whenever a longtime pastor is replaced, observers say. But with a huge,
successful church with long-entrenched traditions - and a new pastor nearly two
generations younger - the effects are heightened.

"I'd be surprised if
it didn't happen," said Lesley Northup, a specialist in religion and
culture at Florida International University. "Change is inevitable with a
new pastor. And change produces discomfort. And it's magnified in a highly
publicized place, where both the predecessor and the current guy are
well-known."

Tchividjian, 37, a
grandson of evangelist Billy Graham, was elected March 15 as pastor at Coral
Ridge, which had lacked a leader since Kennedy died in September 2007. But if
he thought he had a mandate for change, the small but vocal coterie of critics
has hotly disagreed.

They have mass-mailed
accusations to congregants, accusing Tchividjian of heavy-handed tactics such
as downplaying the church's traditional service in favor of contemporary
worship. They've criticized Tchividjian for replacing some Coral Ridge staff
with his own people, and planning to sell land at the church's west campus
"to make up for budget shortfalls."

Their recommended
solution: a petition to put an end to Tchividjian's 4-month-old pastorate. More
than 1,600 copies of the petition were mailed to church members on July 24.

The church sent the six a
letter on Aug. 4, saying that if they step onto church property, they will be
considered trespassers. A second letter on Thursday, signed by Tchividjian,
gave the rationale: "No church government can tolerate such an
insurrection from those who will not listen to admonition, refuse all counsel,
and will stop at nothing until they have overthrown legitimate authority and
replaced it with their own." (LINK)

Kennedy's daughter,
Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy, and a number of other dissidents, went on to form the
New Presbyterian Church in Pompano Beach, Florida. See THIS LINK for information on the schismatic church.

Certainly
some very sad events within the tradition I once embraced. My prayers go out to
those souls who have been adversely affected...

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Getting History Right

The Reformers unequivocally rejected the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This left open the question of who should interpret Scripture. The Reformation was not a struggle for the right of private judgement. The Reformers feared private judgement almost as much as did the Catholics and were not slow to attack it in its Anabaptist manifestation. The Reformation principle was not private judgement but the perspicuity of the Scriptures. Scripture was ‘sui ipsius interpres’ and the simple principle of interpreting individual passages by the whole was to lead to unanimity in understanding. This came close to creating anew the infallible church…It was this belief in the clarity of Scripture that made the early disputes between Protestants so fierce. This theory seemed plausible while the majority of Protestants held to Lutheran or Calvinist orthodoxy but the seventeenth century saw the beginning of the erosion of these monopolies. But even in 1530 Casper Schwenckfeld could cynically note that ‘the Papists damn the Lutherans; the Lutherans damn the Zwinglians; the Zwinglians damn the Anabaptists and the Anabaptists damn all others.’ By the end of the seventeenth century many others saw that it was not possible on the basis of Scripture alone to build up a detailed orthodoxy commanding general assent. (A.N.S. Lane, “Scripture, Tradition and Church: An Historical Survey”, Vox Evangelica, Volume IX – 1975, pp. 44, 45 – bold emphasis mine.) [http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/vox/vol09/scripture_lane.pdf]

And this one thing at least is certain; whatever history teaches, whatever it omits, whatever it exaggerates or extenuates, whatever it says and unsays, at least the Christianity of history is not Protestantism. If ever there were a safe truth, it is this…To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant. – John Henry Newman